What are podcasts and iTunes U?

Podcasts are free audio or video files that you can play on your computer, iPhone, or iPod. 

Podcasts are like a TV or radio series that you can subscribe to on your computer. iTunes is a free application for mac and PC that makes  getting podcasts easy. Open iTunes and click on the iTunes Store and click Podcasts or iTunes U.  Search for a podcast that interests you. You can listen to a single episode or subscribe to the podcast series so that new episodes will automatically be downloaded in to your iTunes library. 

iTunes U has over 100,000 educational audio and video lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world. See below or Click here for a video introduction to iTunes U 

Podcasts are a great way for teachers to demonstrate life long learning and keep up with educational research. 

The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers #5 is to Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership. Podcasts can help teachers meet this standard. One related indicator is that teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. The second related indicator is that teachers evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.

What is a Wiki?

A Wiki is a collaborative web site.

Teachers can use a wiki to enable each student to contribute to a great class web site. The teacher can set the wiki permissions for each of the students in their class. For example, Students may be given permission to "read only" some pages on the site and permission to edit other pages.

National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-S) number one is Creativity and Innovation. "Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology." Creating original works as a means of personal or group expression is an indicator.

A Wiki is an fantastic platform for teachers and their classes to demonstrate personal or group expression with technology.

The video below gives a great general explanation of a wiki.

I contribute to the Tech Tactics Wiki at https://techtactics.wikispaces.com

Mason teachers that are interested in starting a wiki can contact your Technology Curriculum Leader (Jim or Randy) to get started. Other teachers can check my bookmarks for wiki resources.

Click here for my Wiki related bookmarks.

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication .

Many web sites use RSS feeds to broadcast the new information posted on their site. 

Teachers and students can use RSS to easily keep up with all of the new information posted on many different web sites. 

The video below explains the process.

What are Blogs?

A blog is another name for a web log. This web page is an example of a blog. Notice that the articles (called posts) are organized in chronological order. Blogs can provide information on a wide variety of topics. The focus of my blog is educational technology tools. 

Teachers can read blogs to learn and write a blog to share their expertise and point of view on effective educational tools and practices.

The video below gives a good explanation of Blogs. 

Blogs are a great tool for teachers to share with other educators and meet The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS•T)

Click here for my bookmarks related to blogs